What women are talking about today, Friday May 13.

Morning everyone,

Let's jump straight in with the top five news stories you need to know this morning, Friday May 13.  

1. Liberals tease policy announcements, as Labor promises $194m for Great Barrier Reef.

The Liberal Party is expected to announce new policies at its official campaign launch in Brisbane on Sunday, less than a week before the May 21 federal election.

Any last-minute announcements could change the overall budget bottom lines for both parties, and the opposition's decision on whether it will match any announced commitments, Labor argued.

Today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will promise to secure modern manufacturing and supply chains in Australia.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will travel to Cairns to announce extra funding to help save the Great Barrier Reef by pledging to work with the Queensland government, First Nations communities, businesses and landowners.

"Parents and grandparents are worried their children will not be able to see this incredible natural wonder for themselves," Albanese said.

"That's why it's so important we act on climate change and species protection - to protect the reef and the tens of thousands of jobs that rely on it."

Labor pledges more money to protect Great Barrier Reef from climate change https://t.co/288NuuwBg3

— ABC News (@abcnews) May 12, 2022

Labor previously made a $163 million funding pledge for a reef protection program in January. The additional announcement brings the total commitment to $194.5 million over forward estimates.

Morrison visited Cairns in January to commit $1 billion over the next nine years to help manage the reef, after the Commonwealth successfully lobbied UNESCO to delay a decision listing the site as "in danger".

2. Women candidates facing uphill battle.

Men are more than twice as likely as women to be running as a Liberal-Nationals candidate in a winnable seat at this year's election.

The findings, contained in an analysis by the Australian National University, show 20 percent of LNP women are challenging for winnable seats compared with 46 percent of men.

It is not much better in the Labor camp, with just 24 percent of their female candidates running in seats viewed as winnable, compared with 33 percent of male candidates.

Overall, 29 percent of coalition candidates and 43 percent of Labor candidates are women.

Global Institute for Women's Leadership director Michelle Ryan said running women in seats they are unlikely to win was a big loss for democracy and for Australia.

"Increasing the number of female candidates put forward at each election is important in ensuring our parliament represents the diversity of the community," she said.

"What is equally important is making sure that these female candidates are running in seats they can reasonably be expected to win."

New research from @GIWLANU revealing a glass cliff for female candidates in Australia’s Federal Election. A big shout out to the fabulous Emma Summerhayes for all her work on this. https://t.co/xhvVY9uhNm

— Prof Michelle Ryan (@shellkryan) May 12, 2022

Of sitting MPs, 41 per cent of Labor's are women, while the figure in the coalition is just 20 per cent.

3. UN considers probe of Russian war crimes.

The UN Human Rights Council will decide whether to launch an investigation into alleged abuses by Russian troops in the Kyiv area that Ukraine says amount to war crimes.

A resolution, brought by Ukraine and supported by more than 50 other countries, would mandate a newly-formed Commission of Inquiry to investigate events in the regions around Kyiv that were temporarily held by Russian troops.

It would prepare a report by early next year.

I welcome the adoption of the @UN_HRC resolution reinforcing inquiry into Russia’s war crimes in the recently liberated Ukrainian territories and in Mariupol. Perpetrators of these barbaric crimes will be brought to justice.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) May 12, 2022

"The areas... which have been under Russian occupation in late February and March have experienced the most gruesome human rights violations on the European continent in decades," Emine Dzhaparova, Ukraine's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, told the council.

Russia was suspended from the 47-member Council last month over allegations of violations in Ukraine, although Moscow says it quit. According to UN rules, its envoy had the right to speak at Thursday's event but its seat was empty.

At the same session, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said there were many examples of possible war crimes in the country since the Russian invasion, saying that 1000 bodies had been recovered so far in the Kyiv region.

4. Abortion rights bill fails in US Senate. 

Legislation to make abortion legal throughout the United States has been defeated in the US Senate amid solid Republican opposition.

Democrats had sought to head off an impending Supreme Court opinion that is expected to overturn the nearly 50-year-old Roe v Wade decision that established the national right to abortion. 

With 49 votes in support and 51 against, the Women's Health Protection Act was 11 short of the 60 votes needed to be fully debated in the 100-member Senate.

All 50 Republicans voted to block the bill. They were joined by one Democrat, Joe Manchin.

Move to protect abortion rights fails to pass US Senate https://t.co/TT8RBLU98h

— ABC News (@abcnews) May 11, 2022

America's decades-old battle over abortion rights exploded anew last week when the Supreme Court confirmed the authenticity of a draft opinion that signalled it will soon overturn Roe v Wade.

Such a decision would leave it up to individual states to determine their abortion policies.

The high-court ruling is expected by the end of its current term, which usually concludes in late June.

5. First image taken of Milky Way black hole.

In some major science news, astronomers have unveiled the image of a supermassive black hole lurking at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.

The black hole - called Sagittarius A*, or SgrA* - is only the second one ever to be imaged. 

The feat was accomplished by the same Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) international collaboration that in 2019 unveiled the first-ever photo of a black hole - that one residing at the heart of a different galaxy.

Breaking News: Astronomers captured the first image of the black hole at the center of our galaxy, using the powerful Event Horizon Telescope.https://t.co/nLMc6DCRTF pic.twitter.com/jylWp5gOVs

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 12, 2022

University of Arizona astronomer Feryal Özel hailed "the first direct image of the gentle giant in the centre of our galaxy," showing a glowing ring of red, yellow and white surrounding a darker centre.

Sagittarius A* possesses four million times the mass of our sun and is located about 26,000 light-years - the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion km - from earth.

"It turned out to be a gentler, more co-operative black hole than we had hoped for in the past decade of simulating its environment," said Özel.

And that's it, you're all up to speed for your Friday morning.

- With AAP. 

There are currently more cooking competitions on TV than ever before, as it seems we just can't get enough of all the different variations of professionals and amateurs competing for a culinary prize.

And it's not just about being a passive observer; many of us also love to participate in a cook off in our own lives, whether it be at the local Easter show or with a group of friends.

The Quicky speaks to a MasterChef contestant, two friends who host an annual cooking competition, and a psychologist to find out why we love nothing more than getting competitive in the kitchen.

READ: 

• What women were talking about on Thursday
• What women were talking about on Wednesday
• What women were talking about on Tuesday 
• What women were talking about on Monday

Feature Image: Getty/Instagram @anikawellsmp